Dennis Johnson of Melville House Books, who sees himself as an outsider, is critical of the mainstream of American publishing. I've heard him talk about publishing a couple of times, now, both times thanks to the Literary Press Group of Canada, of which LLP is a member. He's one of the more original voices in contemporary publishing.

In The Painter’s Lover, recently translated into French by Ellen Sowchek and Annie Heminway, Eduardo Manet tells the fabulous story of his grandmother Eva Gonzalès, a brilliant painter who was also Édouard Manet’s pupil, lover, and muse. Art lovers, take note!

The first-ever Inspire! Toronto International Book Fair took place last week, November 13-16, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, eliciting mixed reactions. Linda Leith Publishing was there, in the Discovery Pavillion pod P5, and we enjoyed ourselves.

"Let’s remember that Venice is a fish, after all. She sprang from the lagoon like a miraculous birth. If she is to swim freely, her waters must be respected and protected. How can we allow these titans of steel and smoke to threaten the vitality of the most original city in the world?”

One is always tempted to go naked in Greece: heat and history seem to demand it, and Irving Layton probably did, even though in the first Olympic games athletes wore protective jock straps, nudes on vases notwithstanding.

The Acropolis can lead to poetry or hallucinations of deities. I failed to see divinity, but I absorbed the beauty of the Erechtheion, especially the six caryatids forming the Ionic columns of its so-called Porch of the Maidens. Absorption seems the accurate term.

Marie-Soleil, a woman approaching forty, wants to have a baby. She has no partner and no opportunity of finding a donor whose identity she knows in her host country, Canada. Furthermore, most of her family and friends have stopped understanding her desire to be a mother. Facing the failure of her numerous fertility treatments alone, Marie-Soleil tries anger, humour, and walking. Can she escape her maternal instincts unscathed?

Translation by Jonathan Kaplansky of an excerpt from Cristina Montescu's unpublished novel A Hole in the Belly.

On the eve of publishing his own new book, A Migrant Heart (LLP 2014), Irish-born Canadian essayist and biographer Denis Sampson rereads John Doyle's memoir A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age(Doubleday, 2005).

Ann Charney is an award-winning writer who was born in Poland and has spent most of her life in Montreal, where she has worked as a columnist for Maclean’s and a feature writer at Saturday Night as well as publishing four novels and a collection of essays entitled Defiance in their Eyes. I will be interviewing her on stage about her latest book, Life Class, as a pre-StoryFest event on Sunday, June 1st, 2 p.m., in St. Mary's Hall, Hudson, Qc.

The event will be followed by a reception and signings at Greenwood, 354 Main Road.
Tickets $10, availabe at Pure Art, 422, rue Principale, Hudson.

Chantal Ringuet, who has written a series of Letters from Israel on this website, has just published Under the Skin of War(BuschekBooks, Ottawa), a collection of poetry inspired by the work of British photographer Don McCullin. The launch takes place this evening at Librairie Le port de tête, 6 - 8 p.m.